Manufacture of peat blocks.



No. vesa is'.

UNITED STAT S I Patented. August 23, 1904,

PATENT OFFICE.

FRANZ wAss1L1WIoz 'GAERTNER, or ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA.

MANUFACTURE OF" FEAT BLOCKS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of" Letters Patent No. 768,445, dated August 23, 1904.

Application filed February 3, 1903. Serial No. 141,744; on model.)

' To all whom it WMI/Z/ GOILOBPIL.

Be it known that 1, FRANZ VVASSILIWIOZ GAERTNER, engineer, asubject of the Emperor of Austria-Hungary, residing at 104: Newski Prospekt, St. Petersburg, in the Empire of Russia, have invented new and useful Improvements in the Manufacture of Peat Blocks, of which the following is a specification. I

4 "1 My invention relates to a process for manufacturing peat blocks.

"By this process I am enabled to produce peat blocks weighing from eight to ten kilograms with the aid of comparatively little machinery and at a small expense. The blocks are not liable to fall to pieces either in the burning, or in water, or in the air. They have a heating power of' from six thousand to seven thousand calories, ignite rapidly, raise steam in an exceedingly short time, develop neither smoke nor sparks, and burn with a vivid bright flame to the last atom. leaving only small quantities of ashes bchind-say from two to two and one-half per cent. These blocks resemble natural coal in point of hardness and luster, their hardness being such that theymay be dropped on the ground from a height of eight to ten meters without breaking to pieces. In order to achieve this re- 3 sult, peat reduced toa granular form is intimatcly mixed with powdered colophony and a very slight quantity of powdered sulfur by the dry and cold method, so as to cause the binding agent to adhere uniformly to all the parts by weight of the peat. I mix one hundred parts of peat with two to two. and onehalf parts of colophony to which one per cent. of sulfur has been added. Such a mixture, either in the cold state or only slightly heatthe application of any of the well-known ined, is conveyed directly to the press without The addition of a slight quantity of sulfur to the colophony has a very material advantage, for while colophony containing twenty-nine thousand calories binds the peat fibers and at the same time increases the heating power of the blocks the sulfur, by reason of the fine distribution of the' two substances through the peat, enables the entire block to be rapidly ignited. Moreoventhe addition of sulfur affords the. further importantgain that when in commencing, for in stance, to heat a boiler the blocks arelaid flat one upon the other they will'be ignited with greater rapidity and will not get charred or carbonized, thus giving rise to a more. vivid and more perfect combustion.

Peat blocks manufactured by this process are excellently adapted for the heating of stationary, locomotive, and marine boilers and for other industrial purposes on account of the great facility and eheapness of production.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters-Paten t, is

1. A process for manufacturing peat blocks,

consisting in intimately mixing peatwith powderedicolophony and powdered sulfur all .in the dry and cold state, the product thus obtained beingsubjected directly to pressure in the press, substantially as set forth.

2. A process for manufacturing peat blocks, consistingin intimately mixing peat with pow dered colophony and powdered sulfur all in the dry and cold state, the product thus obtained being subjected in a slightly-heated condition to pressure in the press, substan' tially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

FRANZ WASSILIWICZ GAERTNER.

Witnesses: I

An. A. LOVIAGUINE, E. W. LowRY.

and 

